A junior engineer, who works for a small engineering firm in Cocoa Beach. The firm focuses mostly on NASA projects.Neil is Jean’s best friend. When Jean was turned into a genie, Neil somehow became Jean’s master.

Rings true to me. I’ve never had a manager who could remember a decision they took two minutes ago. A decision taken so long ago they’d had it sent to another department to written down and then passed back to be read out at an event (because managers don’t write things down themselves, and they certainly don’t organise company events). That is so long ago in management time that it was three re-orgs and two takeovers ago. Of course he’d forgotten which name he’d wrote.

It’s the third panel that has me worried.. company employee and Guest..
How is Niel going to get the same week off? Because we all know who Rodge wants to pick to go as his guest!
This has FUN written all over it for us reader!

Show girl Natalie? That’s safer than some of the other types of girls around Vegas that Jean could think of. Isn’t the Bunny Ranch nearby? Be harder to get home from there than the strip club that Neil’s been sent to before.

So am I the only one who saw this coming? From the first strip where Rodge got his work done after being with Nat I figured this would happen. Don’t got nothing on the future though, too many variables what was in the package, will the blue Jeanie be back before the trip what more is Neil willing to do.

Jeanie has “cosmic genie powers.” If she wants to go to Las Vegas, she can just *POOF* herself there. Particularly if her master, as Natalie, is there, since a genie cannot abandon his/her master (except under higher orders, such as Jeanie’s time with Melvin). Maybe that’s why she wants Neil to get a trip, although not clear why she can’t *POOF* both of them anywhere she wants. But in any case, shenanigans not needed.

I wonder if Roger and Natalie get separate rooms, or if the operation is really cheapjack. (Govt. travel rules–FAR for contractors–don’t require doubling up, but in these days of the Sequester, budgets tend to be pretty tight.)

However. Jean doesn’t like being stuck as a female. Misery loves company. It seems likely Neil is going to be spending more and more time as Natalie. Especially as it rubs Jean the wrong way that Neil isn’t as miserable with it as Jeanie is. Perhaps because it can’t be permanent for Neil, since the job and apartment lease and so on all depend on Neil’s identity.

Anyway, CD has lots of plans for complications, I’m sure. Hilarity will ensue.

Does it not occur to anyone else that Niel’s wish that surprised Jeanie was to have Rodge win the contest? That’s why the boss is surprised.

Now, I’m not sure Niel has thought this out because obviously Rodge will be looking to take Natalie along, but I suppose he just plans to turn down the trip as Natalie, and maybe get Rodge to take Jeanie instead. Rodge being a horndog will certainly be willing to take a different woman. (unless the real twist is he’s falling for Natalie and refuses to take anyone else)

Frankly, that was really stupid of the boss. He knows he ordered Neil to keep Rodge on task – and Neil’s ‘reward’ is for Rodge to get the trip he would easily have gotten otherwise. If I were Neil, I would complain – privately – to the boss for the disgusting lack of integrity he just showed. Then again, if I were Neil, I wouldn’t tamely have accepted being threatened with losing my job to keep a deadbeat loser from losing his. I would have simply said, “I’m sorry, but my own job takes up too much time to try to constantly keep another employee on task.”

Then again, it wouldn’t make for a very entertaining comic for someone to do that, so I’m certainly not blaming the author for going that route.

Obviously, but if someone above the boss made the decision, on what did this person base Rodge’s performance? And if Neil was always the goto guy before, what lowered his performance? Again, the answer to both of those questions is the boss who is reading the results and surprised by them. It really doesn’t make sense.

Here’s the thing. Neil was ordered to help Rodge get up to speed. According to Rodge, Neil hasn’t been helping at all. His improvement has been entirely due to this Natalie librarian chick he’s been dating. So Neil loses the prize for failing to do the task given him, Rodge wins it for doing his.

Anyway, from the names, it’s pretty obvious Rodge is going to be let in on Jean’s genie-hood at some point.